The Best Way to Get Something Done is to Do it Yourself

 

It’s taken me many years to figure out that I can take charge of things myself.

Perhaps being a “mostly” stay-at-home mom when my kids were growing up, made me believe that others knew way more about how to ——— (you fill in the blank) than I did.

Seven years ago, I decided to write my memoir, and throughout the years, I’ve been learning new skills:

• Social Media
• Writing
• Blogging
• Starting my publishing company
• Marketing
• Book promotion
• Publicist
• Networking
• Public Speaking
• Event planning

I realize how much a person can do, if they try hard.

Gladys Ingle of the 13 BLACK CATS changes planes in mid-air

Now here’s one Gutsy Woman from 1924, who did something I could never do, even if I tried hard.

I know many writers, bloggers and authors who are working 60+ hours a week to achieve their goals, and I applaud them. I follow them daily on Gutsy Indie Publishers, on National Association of Memoir Writers, and on their own personal websites.

As a proud baby boomer, I’m amazed at how our generation keeps moving along, doing their best to keep learning new skills that seem so easy for my children’s generation. (A quick aside. Do you know how happy I am when I ask my twenty-something sons a social media question and they don’t know the answer and I do. YES!)

 Chris Guillebeau wrote about “The Challenge and the Opportunity.” What struck me as interesting was his comment:

“To me it seemed simple enough: something needs doing, I don’t see another way to do it, so I’ll just do it myself….I’ve had this attitude all my life, and it’s helped me accomplish a lot of things. Whenever I wanted something done, I’d find a way to make it happen.”

But what happens when you get too busy, or you just can’t figure things out yourself?

As Chris points out, everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and there comes a time when you have to question your abilities. Are you wasting your time trying to figure out something that someone else can do better than you?

I know what I enjoy, and what I’m good at, but I also know what doesn’t interest me, and what would take me years to learn. Those are the tasks I delegate to others. Three good examples are:

• hiring a tech guy like Jay Donovan to fix my website problems
• hiring a professional company 1106 Design to design and format my book(s)
• hiring a copy editor like Eve Gumpel to go through my manuscript

In my case, I try to do as much as I can myself, and once I understand my limitations, I ask for help. What about you? Do you struggle with trying to do everything yourself?

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 Next post Monday June 17th. “My Gutsy Story®” by Penelope James.

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